Rice: Benghazi attack was spontaneous; Libya: No, it wasn’t

posted at 12:01 pm on September 16, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

There seems to be lingering confusion about the nature of the attack on the Benghazi consulate that cost four Americans their lives, including the first US Ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979, J. Christopher Stevens. UN Ambassador Susan Rice insisted on Fox News Sunday that the attack on the consulate on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 was a spontaneous demonstration that just “spun out of control.” Rice also doubled down on the administration’s claim that the violence is all about the video:

WALLACE: This week, there have been anti-American protests in two dozen countries across the Islamic world.Tthe White House says it has nothing to do with the president’s policies. Let’s watch.

JAY CARNEY: This is not a case of protests directed at the United States writ large or at U.S. policy. This is in response to a video that is offensive.

WALLACE: You don’t really believe that?

AMB. RICE: Chris, absolutely I believe that. Because, in fact, it is the case. We had the evolution of the Arab Spring over the last many months but what sparked the recent violence was the airing on the Internet of a very hateful very offensive video that has offended many people around the world. Now, our strong view is that there is no excuse for violence. It is reprehensible and never justified. But in fact there have been those in various parts of the world who have reacted with violence. Their governments have increasingly and effectively responded and protected our facilities and condemned the violence and this outrageous response to what is an offensive video. But there is no question what we have seen in the past with things like Satanic Verses and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad there have been such things that have sparked outrage and anger and this has been the proximate cause.

WALLACE: It may have sparked it but you critics say that the outpouring of outrage against the U.S. has everything to do with the U.S. policies. That we are disengaging from that part of the world that we pulled out of Iraq, we are are pulling out of Afghanistan, that Iran is continuing on with its nuclear program and they say our critics is that our allies no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us.

AMB. RICE: Well, Chris, that is just false. Le’s be plain. Our partners and allies value voters responded effectively and promptly when we have asked them to protect our facilities and our people.

National Journal picks up on Rice’s flat-out insistence later in the interview with Chris Wallace that the Benghazi attack had no element of premeditation or planning:

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, maintained on Sunday that the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was not planned by terrorist groups. She said the attack spun out of protests, which were sparked by an anti-Islamic video produced in the U.S.

“This was not a pre-planned, pre-meditated attack,” she said on Fox News Sunday. “What happened initially was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video. People gathered outside the embassy and then it grew very violent. People with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy weapons—which, unfortunately, are quite common in post-revolutionary Libya—and that then spun out of control.”

“We’re not impotent,were not even less popular to challenge that assessment” said Rice. ” What happened this week in Cairo, in Benghazi and many other parts of the region was a result, a direct result, of a heinous and offensive video that was widely disseminated, that the U.S. government had nothing to do with, which we have made clear is reprehensible and disgusting.” …

“Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo,” Rice told me this morning on “This Week.” …

“We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy to – or to the consulate, rather, to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo,” Rice said. “And then as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons… And it then evolved from there.”

That comes as news to the Libyan government, which has now arrested 50 people in connection to the murders and the attack on the consulate. Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf told CBS’ Face the Nation that the attack was planned for months by people who had infiltrated Libya from other nations specifically for the attack:

About 50 arrests have been made in connection with the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the American Ambassador and three other consulate employees were killed, and some of the suspects involved are from outside the country, Libya’s president told CBS News.

In an interview for “Face the Nation” Sunday, President Mohamed Magariaf also said that evidence “leaves us with no doubt” that the attack was pre-planned.

“It was planned, definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago, and they were planning this criminal act since their arrival,” he told Bob Schieffer.

So who to believe? Magariaf’s statement is more against his interests, at least on the surface. He’d have some benefit from the argument that the consulate got sacked in a spontaneous eruption of anger, because it would let his security forces off the hook for missing the extensive plot that Magariaf now asserts was in place. It could also be a ploy to crack down on radial Islamist networks in the eastern part of Libya, which otherwise might be difficult for the weak central government to undertake, but an admission of weakness in the first place might not be in Tripoli’s best interests. Also, it’s possible that Magariaf might be right about the plot and wrong about the plotters, or at least not entirely forthcoming, if the Libyan security forces have been penetrated by the radicals, but that still means Rice’s explanation is entirely wrong.

Fortunately, Rep. Mike Rogers, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, points out a few facts that support Magariaf’s contention and refute Rice’s:

However, Rep. Mike Rogers, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, said the evidence pointed in the other direction, citing the style and coordination of the attack.

“I think it’s too early to make that conclusion,” Rogers said on the same show [as Rice]. “The way that the attack took place, I have serious questions. It seemed to be a military-style, coordinated. They had indirect fire coordinated with direct fire, rocket attacks. They were able to launch two different separate attacks on locations there near the consulate and they repelled a fairly significant Libyan force that came to rescue the embassy.”

The betrayal of the supposedly “safe house” also tends to support Magariaf’s assertion. An angry mob wouldn’t have organized well enough for that kind of pursuit and intelligence, unless the Libyan security forces in the know simply and “spontaneously” decided to throw in with the mob, which is possible but pretty unlikely. The coordination and purposeful strategy in play shows premeditation and planning, and that means it’s not just an angry mob that spontaneously “spun out of control.”

Maybe someone should ask the State Department to explain the difference in conclusions. Oh, that’s right, that part of the US government has declared itself immune from public scrutiny. Bummer. Because if this attack wasn’t the “spontaneous” event that “spun out of control” that Rice insists it was, then State and the White House have a lot to answer for on their preparations and security decisions for the anniversary of 9/11 in a part of Libya well known to be haven to radical Islamist terror networks — including al-Qaeda.

Blowback

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They sent him back over there as punishment for being a bad boy in LasVegas and getting caught.

JPeterman on September 16, 2012 at 12:52 PM

Why do you need to denigrate a guy who is laying his life on the line alongside your troops in Afghanistan? He underwent 18 months of training as an Apache pilot and gunner so he could go back to Afghanistan. He won the award for first in his class as a gunner.

ProfessorMiao on September 16, 2012 at 1:02 PM

Harry was training in the NV desert for re-deployment when he had R&R in Vegas

Muslims are uncontrollable, vindictive children with murderous temper tantrums resulting in death and destruction. The only way to avoid this mayhem and havoc is to eliminate the source of their ire. Round up, arrest and execute all Republicans and conservative and then we can finally have peace on earth.

Ya mean like maybe the Obama Killed Osama movie, due to be released next month IIRC?

Flora Duh on September 16, 2012 at 12:45 PM

Isn’t it odd, though, that the “mideast is in flames” over a clip from an amateurish and badly-done movie posted on youtube…and yet, there is no anger – whatsoever – over the professionally-done and released to theaters “Religulous” (full-length) movie produced and backed by Bill Maher? Which spends the last 20 minutes of the movie denigrating islam.

It’s going to be interesting to see if the “O Killed O” movie is delayed “for editing” past its release date. Dollars to donuts that – when lil barry loses – it will be ‘delayed’ until Romney is inaugurated so that he can deal with the blowback.

Obviously there is a back-story we’re not getting because you can pay a $10 fine after showing proof of installing it and walk away. Impounds are usually a matter of felonious issues. It could be something as innocent as giving the officer just enough of a hard time over something as lame as a missing plate for the officer to feel threatened – then the car needs to be removed from the roadside.

ericdijon on September 16, 2012 at 1:11 PM

Yea, there is a back story. The cop wanted to search my car and I told him no. It’s called exercising my 4th Amendment Constitutional rights, You don’t like it you can phuck off.

I am not denigrating him at all, just the opposite. They sent him back over there as a way to let the news die down about his behaviour in Vegas. The boy has been punished enough, he has a target on his back. They need to bring him home, now.

JPeterman on September 16, 2012 at 1:11 PM

He wanted to go back – he is where he wants to be. What part of that don’t you get?

Chris Wallace, Dhimmi Rice, these riots and protests aren’t because of a film..they are because of the hatred those savages have for our freedoms..our freedoms to be offensive, to be able to voice our opinion without punishment..they hate us, ok, HATE US..they will never like us because we are INFIDELS..they want us to submit to Islam

*screams* i can’t stand this administration..this whole situation has my blood boiling and it’s freaking idiotic to think those jihadists in Libya attacked over a trailer for a movie..freaking stupid people in this administration..dangerously stupid

Have you ever been to California? The majority of cops here suffer from God delusions. We have the most abusive and intrusive police in the nation. Plus getting arrested and having the car I had just bought impounded because the cop didn’t think I belonged in a Corvette and then having the judge tell me, tough shit, pay the fines didn’t help. (yea, the car I bought three days earlier didn’t have a front license plate on it, for gods sake, 90 percent of the Corvettes in California don’t have a front plate on them)

SWalker on September 16, 2012 at 12:46 PM

+100

I back you to the hilt.

I have had numerous bad experiences with California traffic cops, especially in big cities. It’s not even so much whether you deserve a ticket or not – it’s the entire predatory attitude tht drivers minding their own business are there to be netted like fish and milked like cows, and especially how so many of them treat drivers with utter disrespect. As well as the racial profiling at night where they shine a spotlight on passing cars, not speeding and not breaking any law whatsoever, to see what color the face reflects, which I have seen over and over for years.

California traffic cops are just about the worst.

Just to pick one story at random, once the local cops got together and crept all through sleeping neighborhoods in 5 cities at 4 a.m., putting a $60 ticket on the windshield of every car without a front license plate. There was no attempt to buy a couple ads, or even put in the paper that this would be done, to explain the crackdown to drivers and give drivers a good-faith chance to correct it. Just creep through the citizens’ neighborhoods and hand out hundreds of tickets. Then, when you call the police, they emphaticall deny that there was any coordinated crackdown whatsoever, despite the fact that half the people you know, over a 15-mile area, woke up to a ticket.

It’s just a massive disrespect between police and citizens in CA – that’s been my experience. It’s not “to protect and serve” – it’s to “tax and intimidate.”

I’m thinking the movie gets quietly quashed, never to see the light of day.
Bishop on September 16, 2012 at 1:11 PM

Agreed.
But also with VegasRick, too.

It’s a pickle, in my mind.
Video caused this (their argument), therefore the MOVIE should be, what?, rescinded ??
Ok, but if it’s not, because of the narcissist, how can we point to their hypocrisy without First Amendment problems ??

I’m probably over thinking this, since the movie will likely fade into the sunset, but,
DAYUMI’dd SOOO like to find a way to nail them on it that I’m struggling to !!!
LOLOLOL.

What are they up to, that the entire adminsitration is so heavily invested in shoveling this false narrative?

rayra on September 16, 2012 at 1:22 PM

This is so dangerous for the administration they don’t know what to do but lie. They do not want the American public to see how inept they are. The legacy media has created an air on invisibility in this administration. They have been able to say and do anything they want without anyone challenging them.

Why would you reply to a comment with a question asked in a respectful manner in such a vulgar manner? Have I ever used an invective in an exchange with you?

hawkdriver on September 16, 2012 at 1:19 PM

Maybe you should go back and reread what you wrote, there was nothing respectful about it. You asked me why I don’t like cops, I told you and then you responding in a condescending and insulting manner by suggesting that I had violated the vehicle statues and somehow deserved having my Constitutional Rights violated my vehicle impounded and having money extorted out of me.

Right on, sadsushi! I wanted to absolutely throw up watching Susan Rice this morning. I swear, I think the more they repeat this claptrap,the more they believe it to be so and the more convinced they are that everyone will swing into line with them.

Mika’s Commie Dad: “If we act unwisely, we can create a menace in the region”

So, we have the election game here. It will be Romney’s fault if he says something against Obama’s foreign policy. He could inflame the Arab Street.

It’s all about ginning up and scaring women voters.

faraway on September 16, 2012 at 1:07 PM

Well we are on day two of this thought process for you.
I as a woman can only speak for myself, but as such I am terrified of administration that cannot and will not even protect it’s own and it’s countries constitution. I feel ginned up for getting a new CIC.

Now as far as NON-traffic cops are concerned, I’ve never seen worse than New Orleans P.D. I’ve seen college kids stomped, billy-clubbed, lifted by the neck, Darth-Vader style and thrown against plate-glass windows, held by the hair and bounced a half-dozen times off sgteel lightposts…. all for talking back, e ven respectfully.

Did you have the front plate in your possession? If so were you aware that it was supposed to be mounted on your car? Were you stopped for not having it properly displayed? Would you have been stopped were it properly displayed? If you answer yes to any of these questions how is it the fault of LEOs to go through the steps they are trained to?
Cops are trained to spot signs of stolen vehicles and no front plate is one of the key signs.

Maybe you should go back and reread what you wrote, there was nothing respectful about it. You asked me why I don’t like cops, I told you and then you responding in a condescending and insulting manner by suggesting that I had violated the vehicle statues and somehow deserved having my Constitutional Rights violated my vehicle impounded and having money extorted out of me.

SWalker on September 16, 2012 at 1:27 PM

I did. Reposted it here. Point out where I descended into anything one could call disrespectful. Especially compared to what you were replying to other here.

I live in California and am about as anti-Police as you can get, but this honestly is a big fat nothing burger.

SWalker on September 16, 2012 at 12:35 PM

Umm, why?

hawkdriver on September 16, 2012 at 12:40 PM

You formed your less than supportive opinion of our law enforcement officers over your lack of adherence to vehicular statutes?

hawkdriver on September 16, 2012 at 12:56 PM

Wrong answer dickwad. I did not fail to adhere to ANY vehicular statutes, all so called charges were dismissed because they were 100 percent bogus. I ended up having to pay for the impound and a damned insane fine California has that involves a “Restitution Fee” for ANY Vehicle impounded by the Police regardless of whether any vehicular infraction has been committed.

“I’m going to frustrate all of you, infinitely, by telling you that now that we have an open FBI investigation on the death of these four Americans, we are not going to be in a position to talk at all about what the U.S. government may or may not be learning about how any of this this happened…”

Wrong answer dickwad. I did not fail to adhere to ANY vehicular statutes, all so called charges were dismissed because they were 100 percent bogus. I ended up having to pay for the impound and a damned insane fine California has that involves a “Restitution Fee” for ANY Vehicle impounded by the Police regardless of whether any vehicular infraction has been committed.

Well we are on day two of this thought process for you.
I as a woman can only speak for myself, but as such I am terrified of administration that cannot and will not even protect it’s own and it’s countries constitution. I feel ginned up for getting a new CIC.

MontanaMmmm on September 16, 2012 at 1:30 PM

I should have been more clear. I am referring to undecided/convertable women voters. Of course, you are not voting for Obama, no matter what.

But the election is just a big sales job, a fairy tale you might say.

After the film fairy tale is talked about every day and Romney is forced to stand up for free speech, some undecided women voters may decide that Romney will ‘incite’ ‘scary’ Muslim rioters to kill more people.

This has the effect of taking voters from us, vs taking them from Obama (as would be the case if we focused on the terror attack that was not stopped by Obama).

Did you have the front plate in your possession? If so were you aware that it was supposed to be mounted on your car? Were you stopped for not having it properly displayed? Would you have been stopped were it properly displayed? If you answer yes to any of these questions how is it the fault of LEOs to go through the steps they are trained to?
Cops are trained to spot signs of stolen vehicles and no front plate is one of the key signs.

Rio Linda Refugee on September 16, 2012 at 1:34 PM

Yes, the Front license plate was in the car

It was a Corvette, how many Corvettes have you ever seen with a Front license plate?

Right outside my house.

Yes, I would have been stopped regardless, the cop couldn’t see the front license plate, that was his excuse when he couldn’t find any other legal justification for pulling me over. Since the car was already legally registered, (did the the day I bought it), there is absolutely no way the cop thought it might be stolen. (Pulling out of my driveway where the car was registered to)

What the hell is it with you and “women voters”? Do you think that women are just too stupid to see what’s going on? Do you think that women have such little awareness that they don’t see that the regime is trying to lie to the entire country – not just women? Do you think that all women are nothing more than sheep which are herded hither and yon by the latest scare story from the regime?

You seem to have a particular problem with women – in addition to being an eeyore; if not an outright concern troll.
Straighten up!

You formed your less than supportive opinion of our law enforcement officers over your lack of adherence to vehicular statutes?

hawkdriver on September 16, 2012 at 12:56 PM

I did not fail to adhere to any vehicular statute, and my less than “supportive opinion of our law enforcement officers” is entirely due to being abused by those LEO’s and having my CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS VIOLATED. If you have a problem with Citizens exercising their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS and expecting to not be abused by the law enforcement community for doing so, then I suggest it is you who have a problem. Yes, your statement was condescending and insulting.

Anywhere any member of this Admin. goes in the future, be it a diner, ballgame, social event, whatever, They should be yelled at until they are forced to call the police. Then the police can educate them on the first amendment. Jay Carney should never be out in public again without someone up in his face (Remember his boss approving of that tactic?)
And Dempsey should resign. He is not fit to lead our Armed Forces if he cant understand the document they are sworn to uphold and defend:The Constitution of the United States of America.

You’re condescending in a manner I have not even begun to demonstrate. You seem to project a bit. You also seem to be agitated easily over the mildest of analysis of your comments. I might also add if the manner in which you perceive I was disrespectful, was your justification to call me a “dickwad’, I’d feel pretty justified in returning any number of childish insults in return.

I’m not much like that though.

I have met real Conservatives with experiences with LEOs that gave them less than glowing reviews. Can’t remember one that claimed “about as anti-Police as you can get” and it made me curious.

I have met real Conservatives with experiences with LEOs that gave them less than glowing reviews. Can’t remember one that claimed “about as anti-Police as you can get” and it made me curious.

hawkdriver on September 16, 2012 at 1:56 PM

Now I’m not a “Real Conservative” because I get offended at having my Constitutional Rights violated. Because I get offended when people suggest that I somehow deserved to be abused and have my constitutional rights violated. Somehow I am not a “Real Conservative” when I don’t bend over and kiss Law Enforcement Officers asses and TRUST the Government to always be honest, and do the right thing.

Since AmeriKKKa is no longer a nation of laws, from the very top, we should all be at least suspicious of politicians and their capos. Unfortunately in all the land the police are no longer for peace and stability, but trappers, for dough, so they and those who pay them get paid. Many states are literally that broke and their high salaries and pension bennies must be satisfied.

———-
You two good ones, shake and get away from topic. We’ve got sharks and whales to fry, not smelts.

Good question. He will not go public until the narrative has been laid down and his media minions have given sufficient cover for him. I am rereading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich…no Godwin’s Law.

Obama needs to fire Hillary. Her policy of disarming our embassies directly resulted in the deaths of four U.S. citizens one of which was an ambassador (a diplomat of the highest rank who represents his/her country). As Secretary of State she is responsible.

Now a little Susan Rice history (from many sources): She’s highly educated. Her dad and her mom were highly successful and political people. She was as married to and ABC producer. In all you could say she lived an American dream of success.

Here’s where it get’s interesting. Clinton appointed Susan Rice to Assistant Secretary of State to African Affairs. Rice was not the first choice of Congressional Black Caucus leaders, who considered Rice a member of “Washington’s assimilationist black elite.” At the confirmation hearing chaired by Senator Jesse Helms, Rice nursed her infant son. Rice was considered “young, brilliant, and ambitious” and she worked to “integrate Africa in the global economy while at the same time aiming to increase U.S. national security”; even as she was criticized by detractors who considered her “authoritarian, brash, and unwilling to consider opinions that differed from her own”.

She was Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping from 1993 to 1995; and as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs from 1995 to 1997. Because of the inability or failure of the Clinton administration to do anything about the genocide she would later say of the experience: “I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required.”

Rice supported the multinational force that invaded Zaire from Rwanda in 1996 and overthrew Dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, saying privately that “Anything’s better than Mobutu.” Others criticized the U.S. complicity in the violation of the Congo’s borders as destabilizing and dangerous.

Rice was a member of an American delegation to visit detained Nigerian President-Elect Basorun (M.K.O. Abiola). During this meeting, Abiola had a heart attack which caused his death.

In 2002, Sudan and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were ready to cooperate on intelligence potentially leading to Bin Laden, but that Rice and Clarke (counter-terrorism czar) persuaded National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to overrule Albright.

Today: The president of Libya’s General National Congress claimed on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the assault was timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Mohammed Yussef Magariaf blamed “people who entered the country a few months ago” from Mali and Algeria for mounting the assault that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.

Sen. John McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said the violence bore the hallmarks of premeditation. “How spontaneous is a demonstration when people bring rocket-propelled grenades and heavy weapons?” he said on CBS.

But on several morning news shows, America’s U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice insisted a preliminary investigation suggests it was not a coordinated terrorist action. “We’re not impotent, were not even less popular to challenge that assessment,” said Rice. ” What happened this week in Cairo, in Benghazi and many other parts of the region was a result, a direct result, of a heinous and offensive video that was widely disseminated, that the U.S. government had nothing to do with, which we have made clear is reprehensible and disgusting.”

From “I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required” to stopping just short of saying “nothing happened here,” I find that reprehensible, Ms “useful idiot.”

Ambassadors serve “at the pleasure of the President,” which means that they can be dismissed at any time.

Don’t let that proverbial door hit you in the asses when you leave, Hillary and Susan. Or, you two can be true useful idiots and hold the door open for Barack and Joe when they leave.

Now I’m not a “Real Conservative” because I get offended at having my Constitutional Rights violated. Because I get offended when people suggest that I somehow deserved to be abused and have my constitutional rights violated. Somehow I am not a “Real Conservative” when I don’t bend over and kiss Law Enforcement Officers asses and TRUST the Government to always be honest, and do the right thing.